Posts tagged server
More Server Consideration
Jul 16th
I discovered a positive development for both server options today: First, the Q9400s, a lower power version of the Q9400 which would work better in the SFF case. Secondly, I learned that I can boot to a software RAID1 setup, which makes the Atom route more appealing, which I’m now leaning towards. The Atom should have enough power for a basic web and file server, while running cooler and using less power as well.
A Question of Power
Jul 14th
By now, Cervantes (my webserver) is starting to get pretty old. While it still performs it’s basic functions decently, I’m wanting to move to a RAID setup to prevent data loss due to a hard drive crash. While I do have nightly backups of the most important data on Cervantes (my posts) the rest of the data could still be lost at any moment.
I’ve found a couple of nice Mini-ITX cases for server use, both made by a company named Chenbro. One has two hot-swappable drive bays and a 150W power supply, and the other has four bays with a 180W PSU. Besides the number of bays, the cases are otherwise very similar. What type of RAID I decide will influence the case selection.
When I first started putting this build together, my plan was to use the Intel Atom board with the 330 dual core processor. Unfortunately, that board does not support hardware RAID, so I’d have to do RAID in software. While the Atom should be able to handle that ok, it does mean that I’d need a separate boot disk. The Atom board only has two SATA ports, so that boot disk would have to be on either IDE or USB, and I have found online some small flash-memory modules that can plug directly into those connectors on the motherboard.
When I ran into the hardware RAID issue on the Atom board, I also began to look at other Mini-ITX boards that DID support hardware RAID. If I want to stick to an Atom CPU, I can get an ION board, which pairs the Atom CPU with an Nvidia chipset. While I’d gain hardware RAID, the ION boards are considerably more expensive than the Intel boards, and most of the multimedia features of the board would go to waste.
The second alternative was to use a Mini-ITX Socket LGA 775 board, which are available with either a Q45 or G45 chipset. The board feature four SATA ports as well as hardware RAID support on the motherboard. I’d also be able to use a much more powerful CPU, though it brings up the question of whether the smaller power supplies in these cases would support them (In fact, a quick calculation confirms that the system would pull around 160W, just over the power provided by the smaller case, and a little close for confort on the larger). I’d like to have a Core 2 Quad processor, as I do sometimes SSH into my server for development purposes. The power issue could be remedied by replacing the included PSU with a larger one. The two bay case uses a FLEX ATX power supply, and a quick Google turns up a 270W for sale, which would provide plenty of power.
Overall, I’m leaning towards the higher end build, due to both the hardware RAID and the better CPU for development, as well as the possibility of running virtual machines on top of it.
Well, SOMEONE thought it was a good idea
Dec 10th
A while ago, I wondered about the possibility of a small, commercially marketed server for home use, and it looks like VIA is going to do that. They haven’t made a desktop application for administering it like I had suggested, and it seems to be more intended for internal use, such as file storage.
Small, personal web servers
Sep 27th
Tiny Mini-ITX web server
I recently helped my roommate shop for a small, personal web server. We wound up basing it on Intel’s Atom platform, and I was amazed at how cheap it was. The server (pictured above) came up to almost exactly $200, including shipping, and has a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 512MB of Memory, and an 80GB hard drive. It runs Ubuntu 8.04 Server Edition.
The motherboard is a Mini-ITX form factor board, so the whole server is pretty small. It has a low power consumption, with the Atom CPU using only 4W of electricity. For anyone looking to host their own web page, the Atom is a great way to do it. So far, the box has handled everything we’ve thrown at it quite nicely. It’s running a LAMP server to host a few personal sites.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more (close to $300 for the same specs) you can get the server down even smaller by using a slimmer case and laptop components.
With the cost of hardware dropping, I wonder if we’ll see devices like this mass marketed to the general public. It’s mainly a matter of making a nice interface for it to easily allow setting up a photo or blog site. Imagine a desktop application that would allow a user to type up a blog post, upload photos, etc., then automatically upload that content to the server.
If anyone’s curious, the hardware we bought is here. The motherboard is currently out of stock, however, as Intel has released a dual core version. I’ll update the wishlist when Newegg gets the new board in.
Clusterf*ck: Mass Virtualization
Jul 30th
Sometime after I get back to Kentucky, I’m thinking of building a server for running virtual machines using VMware Server 2.0. The idea is to virtualize as many of my machines as possible. Virtual servers, in particular, benefit from this by being able to be easily moved or cloned. Rather than having to take a server down for upgrades, you have the ability to clone the VM, apply the upgrade to the clone, then switch them out, resulting in nearly zero downtime.
In addition to running web and mail servers, I could also virtualize the backends to some other applications, namely Deluge and MythTV, so that the computers they ran on didn’t need to be on 24/7. MythTV is a little tricky due to the lack of support for PCI passthrough in VMware, but I could of course use USB tuners. I could also use a virtual machine as my primary desktop, and use a small, low powered, thin client to access it over VNC or SSH.
I recently looked into the hardware I’d want for such a server and came up with the following:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz CPU
- Intel BOXDG31PR Micro ATX Motherboard
- Kingston 4GB (2×2GB) DDR2-800 Memory
- Seagate 1TB SATA2 Hard Drive
- APEX DM-387 Slim Micro ATX Case
The build would be another slim micro ATX build, similar to Cervantes and have a quad-core CPU, 4GB of ram, and a terabyte of storage. In total, it came to a little under $600 for the entire build (I love how cheap hardware is getting) but I think I’ve decided to hold out for Nehalem before I build it. With native quad cores and hyper threading, Nehalem should work well for this kind of project.
Always lock down your mod_proxy
Jun 8th
So, my server had been eating bandwidth for breakfast, and I finally found out why. I was using apache’s mod_proxy to redirect incoming connections across the network, but that was being hijacked by some ad agencies and being used as a general use web proxy. Hopefully I’ve got that taken care of now. While I still see several incoming connections, they are no longer slowing down the network, so I’m assuming that my fix worked.
Cervantes Lives! And other fun tales
Jun 5th
Cervantes is back online, at least for the time being. I’m going to take this opportunity to write a few things. So much has happened since my last post.
Obviously, the main thing is my internship. I’m now almost three weeks in, and I’m loving every minute of it. The campus is downright amazing, and the weather in Palo Alto is beautiful. I’m getting to work exclusively in Linux, and using GTK+. I’m really starting to like coding in C/C++ now that I’m doing something useful with it. My first paycheck has come and gone, but on the upside, I’ll have a place to live for the rest of the month.
My Thinkpad T61p has been holding up great, and has handled everything I’ve thrown at it easily. That said, there’ll soon be available upgrades that I could consider, including 8GB of RAM and a Quad Core 2.5GHz CPU. But at around $1000 each, I don’t think I’ll be getting either any time soon. But, I can dream.
In the world of tech, some other goodies have been announced. One of these is the ASUS Eee PC 901 and 1000, the newest in ASUS’s line of subnotebooks, at 9 and 10 inches, respectively. The new generation of Eees uses Intel’s new Atom platform, including a CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, a notable improvement over the previous Celeron processor. The new notebooks are also rated for up to nearly 8 hours of battery life. A few days after the Eee announcement came the Canonical’s unveiling of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, a custom version of Ubuntu designed for small, Atom based netbooks like the Eee. I’m really wanting to try it out on an Eee PC 1000.
Also, a few short days ago, Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination after the final two primaries, meaning he’ll be going up John McCain in the fall. I’m very excited about this, as Obama is the first candidate in my short lifetime that I’ve actually been able to get excited about, and I’m hoping that this campaign will ultimately change the way the political system works in this country.
Server Upgraded and Back Online
May 14th
Cervantes is now running on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. I installed it as I was leaving home and finished configuring it on the free wifi at Panera.
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